Steam, and retail copies.

[Delta]

I see that BtS will be sold via Steam, and on the page it says

"Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword requires Sid Meier's Civilization IV to play and will work with boxed retail versions as well as the Steam version."

However it offers no info on how this will be acheived and also offers no price for buying BtS on its own.

Am I missing something?

 

[Sam_Yeager]

I had a quick look and found this page which seems to answer your question.

 

[Delta]

Meh! I just bought it again on Steam, with the UK-US exchange rate it hardly cost me any extra!

 

[ArmChairAttila]

I cant stand steam. I also mod my games sometimes and if I hose that up its harder to re-install the game with steam. I prefer the cd/manual over these online downloads. If steam would download a .exe I would be more forgiving.

 

[Landstander]

After Amazon changed my ship date, and the stores all ran out before I got off work, I just bought BtS off Steam.

It installed and runs just fine with my box copy of Civ4, and was relatively cheap (no tax).

BUT - what is up with their download speed? My connection usually maxes at 160-180 KB/s (such as with Direct2Drive or any other 'paid' download). But I never topped 90 KB/s with Steam, and most of the time it was fluctuating between 20 and 70 Kb/s. I couldn't play until the next day, which is no big deal, but why the slow download speeds? No way to run a business, IMHO
.

 

[MrFelony]

I've never used steam before, but seeing how i was extra lazy and wanted to play it at midnight when it was officially release...i made an exception lol.

 

[Delta]

I cant stand steam. I also mod my games sometimes and if I hose that up its harder to re-install the game with steam. I prefer the cd/manual over these online downloads. If steam would download a .exe I would be more forgiving.

You can uninstall steam games with a single click, and install them again with another. And the games do have exe's. You can find them in pretty much the same structure as retail only within the steamapps directory.

After Amazon changed my ship date, and the stores all ran out before I got off work, I just bought BtS off Steam.

It installed and runs just fine with my box copy of Civ4, and was relatively cheap (no tax).

BUT - what is up with their download speed? My connection usually maxes at 160-180 KB/s (such as with Direct2Drive or any other 'paid' download). But I never topped 90 KB/s with Steam, and most of the time it was fluctuating between 20 and 70 Kb/s. I couldn't play until the next day, which is no big deal, but why the slow download speeds? No way to run a business, IMHO
.

How does it work with the retail? that is what I didn't get, so I just bought it all again. With Valve games you enter a code and they get added to your Steam account, but I can't see how that can be done with a retail copy of Civ, does Civ IV get added to your games list? or only BtS?

As for speeds, I find that a little odd, I find steam to be one of the fastest downloads I get. Mine is downloading at over 200k right now, and I rarly get that kind of speed. I guess you must have been unlucky, unless, did you download it right after lanch? If so it may have been under stress (the Steam website has charts you can check). I know they do stick a whole bunch of extra servers on when they lanch a high profile title.

Personaly, I find Steam to be designed with a good ethic. They have designed it to aid gamers in what they want to do, without trying to be all dictorial with it (because you know EA would have been if they had done it first). I use it, and if I felt it got in my way, I'd be the first to reject it.

Forgot to add, from what I hear Steam is about to get a huge overhaul. Expect a lot of new community building features.

 

[hotstuffjsn]

If you buy the retail copy, it gets added to your steam account. Much like I originally bought Half Life way back in the day. I eventually lost the cds and bought Half Life 2; and when I was finished installing that game, I found out I could still download the old version of Half Life 1 and the expansions I purchased via in-store long ago. Steam is a good idea overall, I was pleased when I used it before.

I do very much like Direct2Drive moreso though. You can download the .exe file directly with very high download speeds. The file stays in your account permanently and is easily accessible with the product key code easily visible. I also sometimes just burn the .exe file directly to disc too.

I almost forgot to mention that with Direct2Drive you don't have to have the cd in your optical drive!! I was overjoyed when I foudn this out...no more hassling with removing my dvds or other cds I had in at the time

 

[kornish_pasty]

Be careful with Direct2Drive version of the games because they do not work with the boxed versions. i.e. Digital version of Warlords will not work with the boxed version of Civ IV. Same goes for Beyond the sword. reason been is that it uses Trymedia for teh copy protection and is not compatible with Safe Disc.

 

[Thrallia]

according to Direct2Drive, their version of BtS WILL work with the retail version of Civ4.

 

[hotstuffjsn]

Be careful with Direct2Drive version of the games because they do not work with the boxed versions. i.e. Digital version of Warlords will not work with the boxed version of Civ IV. Same goes for Beyond the sword. reason been is that it uses Trymedia for teh copy protection and is not compatible with Safe Disc.

My original Civ IV is retail and Warlords is from Direct2Drive; it's fully functional. You need to patch through them for that particular copy that is all.

 

[SuiteXVI]

BUT - what is up with their download speed? My connection usually maxes at 160-180 KB/s (such as with Direct2Drive or any other 'paid' download). But I never topped 90 KB/s with Steam, and most of the time it was fluctuating between 20 and 70 Kb/s. I couldn't play until the next day, which is no big deal, but why the slow download speeds? No way to run a business, IMHO
.

I usually average 450 - 500k on Steam and I've seen it a lot higher if I hit it at just the right time. 300k is a slow DL on there for me. I think it's less their servers and more to do with how many bounces it takes to get through your ISP and onto your hard drive.

 

[Goombaz]

I cant stand steam. I also mod my games sometimes and if I hose that up its harder to re-install the game with steam. I prefer the cd/manual over these online downloads. If steam would download a .exe I would be more forgiving.

It does download an EXE. It's in the steamapps subfolder. Hooray for anti-steam F.U.D.

 

[commofdoom]

I usually average 450 - 500k on Steam and I've seen it a lot higher if I hit it at just the right time. 300k is a slow DL on there for me. I think it's less their servers and more to do with how many bounces it takes to get through your ISP and onto your hard drive.

and the fact that their servers may have been bogged down with others downloading.